Jean Harlow

I moved like her in Monte Carlo.

OP - Joan Crawford was making huge amounts of money for MGM while Jean Harlow was doing the same. In fact, Joan's box office started to decline in 1937, the year that Harlow tragically died. Crawford was the top female box office star at MGM from circa 1930 to 1937.

Harlow was fabulous and her movies are marvelous. I've often wondered, had she lived, where her career would have led her into the late 30s and 40s. I suspect she would have been an accomplished dramatic actress.

Harlow was one of my favorite stars from that era. She was THE sex symbol during her lifetime and although a terrible actress at first, she became a first rate comedienne. Although she only lived to be 26, she was one of the greatest movie stars of all time.

Box office poising, indeed.

Bombshell is a pretty interesting movie. It was pre-code, so they were able to get away with more stuff than they would have if it had been produced later. It's rather cynical outlook on celebrity and the movie business was not something one expected from MGM.

MGM merely manufactured stars, not actors.

Classic lady, one of the treasures.

Love. Her.

Always found her a little crass and commom. A little too brassy to be really glamorous.

Helen Lawson had her career.

She may have become Ginger Rogers (Kitty Foyle etc.)

r8 I quite agree. Much too "shop girl" looking, and that nasal voice of hers was a real turnoff. Her best performance was her tragic death. I can't believe the popularity she achieved.

She died a terrible death. I think she had an awful lingering illness and her mother thought she could pray it away with Christian Science.

She's kind of freaky looking. The unreal white hair, the ass-chin and the eyebrows, or rather lack of eyebrows. I know that was the fashion of the times, but today it looks kind of scary.

Harlow was a gem in an ocean of woman with only a tenth of her talent. She was, and still is, a unique star.

Interesting that they hadn't created the "dumb blonde" thing yet. The 30's blondes (Joan Blondell, Bette Davis (at times), Marion Davies, Carole Lombard, Ginger Rogers, etc.) were smart cookies.

in Irving Shulman's biography HARLOW, it is revealed that Jean would rub ice on her tits to make them hard.

Actually, that biography which may be out of print,is an interesting read.

Ann Jillian is the poor man's Jean Harlow. Just an observation...do with it what you like.

I can picture Jean Harlow as Dainty June all growed up.

Had she lived, I think Harlow's career would have been more along the lines of Joan Blondell's. A pretty, smart, funny young woman, whose looks hardened with age, and played more working-class roles, and ultimately character parts.

Jean would have turned into a Bea Benederet type in the 1960s, I imagine.

Harlow had much more star power and presence than Blondell IMO. I mean, sure she would've wound up doing Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote appearances, but I think she would've had a longer and more honored career than Blondell.

Who?

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

I think my Ginger Rogers comparison was apt.

If you are a fan check out Harlow In Hollywood. A coffee table book with a lot of great pictures.

Not a fan. But, when I spotted this total untruth in the threadlist, I had to comment:

[quote]and her films made huge amounts of money for MGM when the films of Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer (their other two biggest female stars) were not making money.

[italic]There was a saying around MGM: "Norma Shearer got the productions, Greta Garbo supplied the art, and Joan Crawford made the money to pay for both".[/italic] --- The Goddess Crawford

She died at an age younger than Lindsay Lohan is now. 26.

What age was I?

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

She died of uremic poisoning. Her kidneys shut down. A very terrible death indeed.

Yes, her Christian Scientist (nut job) mom tried to pray this deadly condition away.

In the 1965 film Harlow, starring Carroll Baker, they say she died of pneumonia. I guess for some strange reason in 1965 uremic poisoning couldn't be spoken of. It must have sounded like a social disease to the idiots who made the film.

"My name is Jean Harlo, the t is silent."

Scarlet fever as a child damaged her kidneys causing her death at 26. There wasn't much that could have saved her in that day and age. William Powell, her fiancée, had to practically be carried into her memorial service, he was so distraught. I think Clark Gable acted almost as a crutch for him entering the church.

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

[quote]There was a saying around MGM: "Norma Shearer got the productions, Greta Garbo supplied the art, and Joan Crawford made the money to pay for both". --- The Goddess Crawford

Yes, I am sure Joan "Box Office Poison" Crawford herself is a reliable source on this matter.

[quote]By the mid-1930s Harlow was one of the biggest stars in the United States and, it was hoped, MGM's next Greta Garbo. [bold]Still young, her star continued to rise while the popularity of other female stars at MGM, such as Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer, waned.[/bold] Harlow's movies continued to make huge profits at the box office even during the middle of the Depression. Some credit them with keeping MGM profitable at a time when other studios were falling into bankruptcy.

I don't find her attractive but she did have a nice figure. She looked great in the satin gowns.

Her Hurrell pics are truly iconic. She was not a great beauty in the flesh, however.

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

The Shulman bio is a trashy read and it's entertaining at times, but it's best to take as a novel written by someone who has a lot of contempt for Hollywood. Both 1965 movies based on Harlow's life, one with Carroll Baker, the other with Carol Lynley, are camp trash with not much grounding in Harlow's true story.

As for Harlow herself, her best films are: Red Dust, Red Headed Woman, Dinner at Eight, Bombshell, and for post code, Libeled Lady, a fun screwball comedy with Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy.

By the mid 30s, Harlow and Myrna Loy (especially when paired with Powell) were MGMs top female stars at the box office.

Harlow was probably the biggest tramp in Hollywood history. That's likely why she is all but forgotten today.

She's absolutely dazzling in Libeled Lady (1936); the scene where she "marries" William Powell (though actually best man Spencer Tracy's fiancée) is uproariously funny -- her reactions and timing are brilliant.

R31 & 32 Have it right. For years, it was believed that her mother's Christian Science beliefs / non medical intervention, were the reason for her death. But that has all been disproven . The technology was just not there yet to save her.

She looks like Sally Struthers in the early years of All in The Family.

[quote]And for much of her career Marilyn Monroe was often called a Harlow imitator, although except for the platinum hair and the curvaceousness the two women had little in common.

It's true. A lot of people today (I see it on YouTube all the time) say that Marilyn stole her entire act from Harlow, but, like you said, besides the platinum hair, they were different as night and day. Whereas Marilyn perfected the dumb blonde and breathy voice, Harlow was rather brassy and a bit of a moll in her films.

I wrote an illustrative essay for school in which I pretty much said that Marilyn supplanted Jean Harlow as the ultimate sex symbol when she came into the scene. For one, Marilyn's beauty is timeless, and that's why she still resonates with people. Men (and women) still find her sexy and beautiful, whereas not many would say the same about Harlow. The thin, arched eyebrows and garish 1930s makeup are passe. Plus, she didn't have the best profile and didn't photograph well from all angles. In her movies, she sometimes looks homely depending on the angle (see PUBLIC ENEMY), but in studio portraits with the right lighting she looks fine.

Furthermore, Harlow doesn't really have any classic movies or scenes/images, nor famous lovers/husbands. Some of the reasons why Marilyn has lasted is because she has famous moments that have been imitated/replicated ad nauseam -- shirt blowing up over the subway grate, the "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" routine, singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" -- plus, she married one of America's greatest playwrights (Arthur Miller) and baseball legend (Joe DiMaggio), not to mention her liaisons with the equally iconic Kennedys. All of Harlow's husbands were essentially nobodies despite the latter two being a producer and cinematographer. William Powell was her best catch, but even though he was a megastar in their day, he's pretty much forgotten now.

Marilyn's early life (i.e. no father, unstable mother, orphanage, foster homes, child bride) also resonates with people. Harlow, on the other hand, had a very privileged upbringing, and though she also married at 16, it was out of love and to a fellow heir. In fact, when she was discovered, they were living in Beverly Hills idling the days away in country clubs. She initially had no intention to go into the film industry and had to be coaxed, whereas becoming an actress was everything to Marilyn.

Take a look at these side by side photos. Marilyn's beauty totally blows Harlow's out of the water, and it's evident what a potato head and bulbous nose Harlow had.

Marilyn always seemed like a little girl with a grown-up body. innocent and sexy at the same time.

Harlow, on the other hand, just seemed like a brassy whore ready to fuck the next comer.

No contest.

From 1930-1937 Miss Crawford was MGM's biggest female star. Bigger than Harlow.

Monroe didn't supplant Harlow. Lana Turner did. At least at MGM.

I think Jean Harlow was naturally beautiful, and would have been a knockout if she'd had better makeup and some fucking eyebrows. Even here, where she isn't wearing as much makeup as usual, the horrible pencil-line brows give her a dreadful artificial, ill-natured look.

I do prefer her to Monroe. Harlow always played gals who stood up for themselves, while I've never liked adults who pull that little-child-lost crap. If it's fake then they're manipulative phonies, and if it's real they're mentally deficient.

Let's just say she was lucky she died before Technicolor became the rage.

Are there any color photos of Harlow out there?

Never got her strange accent, she often sounded like she was from The Bronx.

And yet, R31, Powell refused to marry her.

Supposedly, these photos are from a technicolor sequence filmed for "Hell's Angels."

r52 If that's Harlow, I'm the Queen of the May.

Why were Harlow's eyebrows plucked to such an extreme? I don't remember other stars of the period having such barely-there eyebrows. Was it exaggerated on her because it was considered part of her visual trademark, her calling card?

I find it so unattractive, but I'm aware it's the type of thing that can look different to people in different eras.

(I also think the rest of her face has sort of a Miss Piggy look.)

Was she the ugliest leading lady ever?

[quote]Monroe didn't supplant Harlow. Lana Turner did. At least at MGM.

Whilst Turner was originally pitched as the new Harlow, she ultimately seemed to become the new Joan Crawford, at least at MGM.

I can't imagine Harlow being able to maintain her career into the '40s - tastes changed. She was too ugly, too "brassy" to go the Ginger Rogers route.

Joan Crawford was smart enough to reinvent herself. Harlow had a face for character parts.

[quote]Why were Harlow's eyebrows plucked to such an extreme? I don't remember other stars of the period having such barely-there eyebrows. Was it exaggerated on her because it was considered part of her visual trademark, her calling card?

It was the style at the time. Other stars had it, if somewhat less than Harlow. It was never attractive on anyone.

Those color sequences were restored to the latest HELL'S ANGELS dvd release...but not yet on Blu-Ray. Seems to be the only color Harlow footage made.

"Marilyn's beauty totally blows Harlow's out of the water, and it's evident what a potato head and bulbous nose Harlow had."

At least it was her real nose. Marilyn had a nose job and a chin implant. Have you ever seen pictures of Monroe with her natural hair and nose? Her hair was ratty and curly and if you want to talk bulbous, well, her original nose was bulbous indeed. Plus she had dental work to fix her uneven teeth. She had to have a lot of work done to make her into the glamorous creature that was Marilyn Monroe.

The only thing done to Harlow was the overbleaching of her hair to make her hair platinum. She was a natural blonde but not THAT blonde. And her eyebrows were shaved. That was "in" back then, but it looked ridiculous.

Some of her photos were more flattering than others, but the fact was that Harlow was very pretty. But it was hard to tell because she was plastered with so much harsh makeup. She also had a fantastic figure. But her greatest assest was probably her skin. It was like "milk and honey" according to the makeup artists of her films.

Debbie Mazur with platinum hair.

[quote]If that's Harlow, I'm the Queen of the May.

Those photos are clearly Harlow around the time of "Hell's Angels." See link below.

So, r43, you're actually saying one of the reasons Monroe was greater than Harlow was because she fucked more upmarket men?

I like that she rubbed her tits with ice to get them hard.

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

Jean was not beautiful, but she was photogenic. The camera loved her. She was not much of an actress, but she had presence.

Few of the Golden Age actresses were great beauties, but their personalities helped to make them interesting.

With her platinum hair and delicate graphic eyebrows and cupid'sbow lips,she had the perfect look for black and white art deco photography and art direction.

No one would have looked more perfect in those MGM Dinner at Eight sets and in those glorious white and silvery Adrian gowns and peignoirs.

"Few of the Golden Age Actresses were great beauties..."

We beg to differ:

Greta Garbo

Marlene Dietrich

Loretta Young

Dolores del Rio

Hedy Lamarr

Carole Lombard

That's just a few R65. I didn't say that there weren't any...jeez.

Lana Turner had her eyebrows plucked for an early role, a small part as a Chinese servant girl in 1937's Marco Polo, and they never grew back so fake eye brows were always applied to her during her life.

The younger Lana was a combination of Crawford and Harlow. But certainly softer and more vulnerable than either of them, even when she went femme fatale in such roles as Postman Always Rings Twice. One could argue that Marilyn Monroe classic look borrowed from Turner in Postman.

With her hair bleached platinum and costumed in white, Lana's look for Postman was a deliberate effort on MGM's part to evoke Jean Harlow.

Carroll Baker was a DREADFUL Harlow in the bio-pic. There was absolutely nothing about her performance that captured anything about Harlow. Even those ghastly white 60s bouffant wigs she wore were atrocious and wrong.

I read in a book many years ago that Harlow's husband Paul Bern had a very small peen. One night when intoxicated Harlow mocked him and he beat her severely leaving bruises and welts all over her body including on her back near her kidneys. There was the suggestion that the beating hastened her kidney disease.

There is an account of the night before Bern committed suicide. Apparently Bern and Harlow drank, Bern exited the bedroom and put on a large dildo. Harlow found it amusing and they both laughed and carried on until Bern began to cry. He was found dead the next day. The note he left behind reads:

"Dearest Dear, Unfortuately [sic] this is the only way to make good the frightful wrong I have done you and to wipe out my abject humiliation, I Love [sic] you. Paul You understand that last night was only a comedy?"

The studio sprung into action and Harlow claimed to not understand the note.

What a coincidence I just saw the Jean Harlow movie biography with Carol Baker. Fun to watch

R69, that's from the Irving Shulman book, which was largely fiction and has been discredited. It's a trashy read, but not a true story.

I actually like the Carroll Baker version of Harlow, as a trashy, camp 60s Hollywood on Hollywood picture that only Joseph E. Levine could produce. It was supposedly based on the Shulman book, but screenwriter John Michael Hayes concocted his own largely fictional take on the Harlow story. All the movies that Harlow is said to appear in were not real titles of her films; the producers didn't use the names Howard Hughes, Louis B. Mayer, Clark Gable, and MGM, so they became Richard Manly (ha!), Everett Redmond, Jack Harrison and Mammoth Studios. And Harlow was a virgin when she married Bern and died of pneumonia after passing out on a beach after an alcohol and sex fueled self destruction bender.

Here's the trailer:

And here's the trailer to the Carol Lynley version of Harlow. I've never seen the entire movie.

"She was not a great beauty in the flesh, however."

Actually, people who met her said that she was a natural beauty and that her mother was even more beautiful.

She wasn't a tramp, either, she was after true love.

Interesting R71. Do you know if the suicide note is authentic?

IIRC a photocopy of the Paul Bern handwritten suicide note appears in the Shulman biography.

Jean supposedly had gorgeous skin, which is evident even in b&w films.

[R32] is correct. That's some urban legend about her mother not allowing medical care. She had plenty of it. She developed kidney problems when she was 15 and contracted scarlet fever - and from that point on, nothing could be done to help her. There was no dialysis then. The book on Stanwyck incorrectly states that she was misdiagnosed - she perhaps was, but it didn't make any difference because there was no treatment.

[R69]The David Stenn book on Jean Harlow is very carefully researched and a good read. I can't remember it now, but the story of what happened with Bern was not what Schulman wrote.

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

It doesn't make sense that someone like Harlow would marry a man with a small cock.

R80 you sound sweet, young and naïve.

Marlene's eyebrows rival Jean's that photo. And Jean looks mighty unhealthy there.

Some facts about Harlow:

She had affairs but was not what you'd call slutty, at least not in comparison with a lot of others (Joan Crawford, Clara Bow, Marlene Dietrich, Louise Brooks).

She was good-natured and totally professional. No one who knew her had anything bad to say about her. Unlike her brassy film persona, she was a rather passive personality.

She was very at ease with her body and didn't mind showing it off. Being nude was something she was totally comfortable with.

In Hollywood Babylon there's a picture of a woman reclinging nude that's supposed to be Harlow. But it isn't her. It doesn't even look like her.

When very young her mother divorced her father and took her away from him. Very possessive, her mother kept Harlow away from her father and she seldom saw him. Maybe this was why she was drawn to older men. Two of her husbands were much older than her, and her great love William Powell was 18 years older.

She married Paul Bern because he treated her differently from most men; he seemed to be more interested in her mind then her body, which she found very appealing.

Bern didn't beat Harlow with a cane on their wedding night. And the theory that he beat her so badly that he damaged her kidneys, resulting in her death a few years later, is ridiculous. If the beating had been that bad she would have been killed outright.

Bern was a bigamist. When his mentally ill first wife showed up and threatened exposure, he killed himself.

When Harlow was slowly dying of kidney failure her mother had doctors and nurses in attendance but would not send Harlow to a hospital. The theory is that Mama Jean was so controlling and domineering that she wanted to be completely in control of her daughter's recovery and kept her at home instead of having her in a hospital. Eventually, when Harlow became more and more ill, she was taken to a hospital and died there.

Her kidney failure was brought on by a strep infection she got as a teenager. There was nothing to do done about renal failure back in those days, so Harlow was doomed.

Her last and greatest love affair was with William Powell. She wanted to get married, but he was hesitant and understandably so. He'd been married before to a gorgeous blonde movie star (Carole Lombard) and it didn't work out, so he wasn't quick to jump into marriage with another one. And there was her awful family: her possessive, domineering mother and her sleazy stepfather. It's no wonder he had cold feet. But it was sad for Harlow, who was crazy about him.

One of the many MM bios asserted that MM would have the woman who bleached Jean's vagina fur flown in at certain times to do the same bleaching job on MM's nether regions.

Whatta job!

R72. I have a copy. It was released in the Electronovision process which was another name for video tape. Burton's Broadway HAMLET was the first production in the Electronovision process and was taped live and shown exclusively in theatres for two days only. HARLOW was not done live... done in a studio. Sets looked like soap opera sets. Ginger Rogers played the mother although the rumor was that Judy Garland had been approached but was either a) not interested or b) emotionally unable to do it. Lynley wasn't bad but it wasn't a very good production.

[quote]At least it was her real nose. Marilyn had a nose job and a chin implant. Have you ever seen pictures of Monroe with her natural hair and nose? Her hair was ratty and curly and if you want to talk bulbous, well, her original nose was bulbous indeed. Plus she had dental work to fix her uneven teeth. She had to have a lot of work done to make her into the glamorous creature that was Marilyn Monroe.

Here we go, the myth that Marilyn was a homely girl before Hollywood completely made her over. If that were true, she wouldn't have been a model prior to her modeling career. Norma Jeane was just as beautiful albeit in a more wholesome way. Yes, she had the tip of her nose removed (but not a complete nose job), a chin implant, and her teeth fixed, but people make it sound like she had a complete overhaul like those contestants on that SWAN reality show. The truth is, what really made the difference was the bleached hair and new makeup. That turned her from the-girl-next-door to a sizzling siren.

[quote]So, [R43], you're actually saying one of the reasons Monroe was greater than Harlow was because she fucked more upmarket men?

Not greater, just that it's probably one of the reasons why Marilyn remains in the public eye. Arthur Miller and Joe DiMaggio are still known. Miller's plays get revived often on Broadway and locally, and DiMaggio is one of baseball's enduring legends. When people read about them or study them, Marilyn's sure to be mentioned because she was married to them. Also, her connection to the Kennedys has become a cottage industry. Just this summer, the Marilyn-JFK-Jackie triangle was the basis for the new book THESE FEW PRECIOUS DAYS. in fact, Marilyn gets a mention in almost every Kennedy bio or film. Her own classic films, legendary photographs, and tragic life story, notwithstanding, the above also helps to keep her name in the press.

On the other hand, Harlow's producer and cinematographer husbands, respectively, are long-forgotten, as is her last paramour, William Powell, who, as I said, was huge in the '30s but no one knows who he is today. Therefore, there is nothing to keep Harlow's memory alive -- no classic movies, no famous husbands or lovers, no iconic photographs or images, and not much of a life story. However, Marilyn's star shines brighter than ever. To paraphrase Elton John, though her candle burned out long ago, her legend continues to blaze.

Saw some show once and they were interviewing old guys who worked as crew members for the studios during Hollywood's Golden Era. Every one of them, hands down, said Jean was their favorite actress to work with. They said she was nice to everyone, fun and would hang out and drink with them, crack dirty jokes and curse like a sailor. Probably what would be called a good old gal.

Jean was known by the nickname of "Baby" to all of her friends.

[quote]She married Paul Bern because he treated her differently from most men; he seemed to be more interested in her mind then her body, which she found very appealing.

Well, gay men do have a tendency to do that.

R88, that description sounds like Lombard.

Frau alert! Trolldar R87.

Blondell never had the billing or the clout Jean Harlow had! Can't believe anyone would even think of comparing the two. Ann Jillian the poor man's Harlow?!!? What are you people smoking with some of these comments? Ann Jillian wasn't even a big TV star - never really made anything of herself and most people never knew who she was when her name was brought up, even poor men!!! Yeah, right, Jean Harlow on Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote. She would have gracefully retired when her time came. She would have never allowed herself to become a has been actress. She was already getting fed up with her family sponging off of her and would have put an end to that. Maybe had already spoken to them about it. The thought has crossed my mind it just wasn't religion that kept her mother from letting Doctors work on her. If Jean kicked her out and stopped providing for her, she gets nothing. If she dies her mother gets everything Jean has - money, house, cars, insurance, absolutely everything!!!! I read somewhere that Jean did indeed talk to her family of leeches and gave them when they had to get out and move on. I read this years ago so I don't remember the exact source but it was a reliable one. So I wouldn't put it past her mother to have let her die on purpose. Why else would she let the gal that brought home all the bacon and filled their pockets with a lot of cash die - because of her religion, not Jean's. She has MGM, William Powell, the Doctors and many others pleading with her to let the Doctors do something and she refused. I just don't believe she felt like she could pray it away. She knew Jean would die! She saw dollar signs and Jeans money if Jean died, she saw nothing and moving out and having to fend for herself if she lived. Jean was used by everyone, especially her low life family!!! Even William Powell used her. Had he married her, he would have been in charge of her medical issues not her mother! They said he was devastated for years after, of course he was, he was guilt ridden!!!!! I've read a lot about these two and there is not a doubt in my mind that he felt guilty as hell. He kept promising to marrying her but never proposed. He kept leading her on. I loved William Powell but he deserved to own his guilt!!!!

It's so hard to imagine that she was only 26 when she died. It seemed she lived a lifetime in those few short years. Think of what most 26 year olds are like today.

We named our daughters after her.

It is very, very obvious many people, if not most commenting on Jean Harlow knew absolutely nothing about her or her death. It is NOT true that they could not do anything for back in those times, in fact, quite the opposite is true! Before you comment and make such outrageous statements why not Goggle info on her. I just read a slew of newspaper clippings from many newspapers and they all say an operation could have saved her life. The medical community wasn't exactly the dark ages back then like others would have you believe. She COULD have been saved!!!! There has been so much pure garbage told about her on here - by very ignorant people or people that just didn't like her so they are on here lying about her and making things up. If you watch TCM believe them over the people that tell you Joan Crawford was the biggest star. Not on your life. Not until Harlow's death did Crawford start making the studio money. Robert Osborne knows more then these nuts do. And Jean was not a tramp!! Her story is a sad story.

I read that Harlow's mother was a strict Christian Scientist, and therefore wouldn't allow medical care for Jean. Sad.

If you want to see Jean at her best, get "Bombshell". It's Jean playing herself, with a mooching family, crazy studio life, etc. And Louise Beavers as her maid Loretta is the best. Exchange between Jean as Lola Burns and Louise: LOLA: Hey, I didn't give you that as a negligee, it's an evening wrap. LORETTA: I know, Miss Lola, but the negligee you done give me got all tore up night before last. LOLA: Your days off sure are brutal on your lingerie.

My mother wouldn't let me go see Carroll Baker in HARLOW.

[R99] But did your mother let you go to see Carol Linley instead?

I don't believe most people today know who Harlow was. But back when I was a kid, with the release of books and movies about her, and newspapers writing about the books and the movies, we all knew she had been been the biggest tramp in Hollywood.

[all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.]

"The medical community wasn't exactly the dark ages back then like others would have you believe. She COULD have been saved!!!!"

What could they have done to save her? There was no kidney dialysis back then. There were no kidney transplants. Her kidneys were shot and back then there was no medical treatment to remedy that.

Bumping cause recently read a lot about Harlow.

Read her medical records - nothing could be done.

Furthermore, even her biographers don't seem to link her terrible health in the last few years of her life and her so-called romances, including with Powell. I think her sickness explains some of her romantic choices, which are otherwise weird for a sex symbol. Kidney disease, even before they fail, does a number on the hormones. Painful periods, depression, etc. She'd pee multiple times an hour, suffered frequent fatigue, flu, and especially infections. Would sweat a ton. This had to do a number on her libido and it's not exactly a turn on at home for the man.

She was also drinking heavily in her last years - riding around the canyons with her cousin, drinking gin and crying. Roz Russell called her a sad girl and had to pull her out of bars. Maureen O'Sullivan said Harlow told her when she was with Powell he'd read and she'd wait for him to finish reading. IMO she may have had affairs, but for husbands she chose/wanted men who were mentors, friends, counselors, and explicitly not sexually demanding - didn't WANT that. Her second husband looked like Bern but she was out of the house and back to mom's house in a matter of months - I suspect she didn't want a husband who expected regular sex.

Whenever I see a candid of her and Powell he looks like a male nurse out with a patient. He looks grim, particularly in the last year and a half. They lack sexual chemistry (not saying they were platonic, just suspect passion wasn't a big part of the relationship).

I suspect he didn't want the marriage she wanted because he knew it would be a disaster to make what they had into a marriage. He gave her financial advice, career advice, got detectives who exposed her stepfather's two-timing. There was a gossip item I read from the era that talked about Harlow's past marriages and wondered if she was going to make the mistake of marrying a "friend" again, instead of for romantic love/passion. Sure there was a psychological component to Harlow wanting to MARRY men she respected and adored but mostly as daddies, and a blah sexual connection, but I think there had to be a hormonal/libido part to it as well. Powell didn't want to get married at that time, IMO, to ANYONE (this was prior to his cancer diagnosis a few years later). A highly publicized relationship with Jean was a good deal for him, making him officially unavailable. She looked like such a wreck her last year I don't believe he didn't get with other women on the down low, and I don't believe she cared. Look at her in D.C. five months before her death. Look at her dowager costuming in Libeled Lady nine months before her death - never filming her full body unobstructed.

If you look at pictures of her "Saratoga" double, Mary Dees, in middle-age and old age, Harlow would have ended up looking like Shelly Winters sooner rather than later. The resemblance between Dees and Harlow was startling, with Dees maybe a little bit softer.

According to sources all that Jean Harlow really wanted was a husband and a family. Dead at 26, so sad.

Jean's husband Paul Bern beat the shit out of her. He punched her kidneys and damaged them. She had health problems after he committed suicide. She died at 26 because her internal organs were damaged and her crazy mother a Christian Scientist refused to let Jean get medical help when she needed it. And so Jean got an internal infection and her organs shut down and she died. That was way back in June 1937.

Contrary to popular belief, Jean Harlow did have doctors. But back then, there was no dialysis, and as soon as she contracted kidney disease, she was doomed.

[R103] Correct, she was always terminal, and all this stuff about the Christian Science etc. is pretty much bunk. She had a doctor's care.

No, Paul Bern didn't beat the shit out of her. That's been debunked. She had kidney problems from her teen-age bout with scarlett fever at a sleepaway camp, which went untreated and can cause both kidney damage and cardiac damage. For Jean, it was kidney damage. Her kidneys slowly failed over ten + years. You can survive on 10% kidney function, but when that last 10% fails, you're done, and that's what happened to her. Look at pictures of her from her last year of her life, and really look at her last three movies - Libeled Lady, Personal Property (and Saratoga). Look at pictures of her in Washington D.C. in January 1937.

If he'd punched the shit out of her enough to cause eventually fatal kidney damage she'd have been hospitalized immediately after the beating and died much sooner. Look up how that kind of trauma works, especially back then.

Her medical records from the hospital and at home have been completely released and are on line. Her nurses were interviewed. She had round the clock medical care for her last illness. She was going to die no matter what. In her last illness she WAS misdiagnosed for a couple of days and injected with glucose, which must have been incredibly painful to get MORE fluid in her when she was dying because her body couldn't EXPEL fluid, but the misdiagnosis didn't kill her. Kidney failure did. She even had cerebral edema.

When Irving Schulman's book came out, the source of the lies about Bern's beating, and her mother withholding medical care, it was sourced by Arthur Landau, a guy who had been Jean's agent very briefly, but hadn't been her agent for years when she died. It caused an uproar among those who had known her. Landau claimed it didn't matter, that he was her father confessor and everybody else was lying. William Powell told the press that Bern did not beat Harlow, that that story was absurd. It also turns out that Schulman and Landau were shocked that Harlow's father was still alive - they didn't know that he was, and he'd read the book. Oops. Harlow's dad sued and got an out of court settlement.

She had the highest level of medical care possible at the time, but nothing could be done. Her death was supposedly shocking because her kidney disease was undiagnosed until she was close to death, but when I look at pictures of her from the months before she died it's hard not to wonder what everyone was thinking or telling themselves it was the flu or whatever. She looked godawful.

As an aside, after reading a lot about Harlow, I still come away thinking there has to be a connection between her romantic choices (not her sex partner/short-term affair choices - her romantic choices) and her health. The specifics of the illnesses she struggled with are all about renal function, hormones, stuff like that, and for a long time. The sort of thing where you might feel a little life in your libido once in awhile but as an ongoing thing with a steady partner it's got to kill the regular sex and be a turn off besides. No biographer really makes those connections, they just go - here's what her health was like, and here's who she was dating, but it just makes sense that both her choices of low-sex component daddy figures AND some of her heavy drinking were connected to her health, and if she didn't have so many health issues, she might have been less depressed, less dependant on her mother and her daddy figures, and maybe less depressed so wouldn't have been drinking. Chronic kidney disease is a torment TODAY, even with dialysis, AND it's gross. Imagine it back then.

In recent years Harlow's story is told totally from her point of view, which isn't really fair. A lot of the people who spoke to David Stenn (her best biographer) were compensating for the Schulman book. Still, even though she was a good-hearted person, everybody seems to say she drank a great deal. I've also read on line that the story of her paying for Dorothy Millette Bern's headstone is bunk - MGM paid to put Millette in the ground, but that's it. There's so much reverse mythologizing about Harlow to make up for that tabloid book that came out in the 1960s. When she died, at first the gossip columnists almost made it like she died of a broken heart because Powell wouldn't marry her. Then when HE got sick, they made it like he was dying of guilt and heartbreak because she died before he could marry her. It was all MGM bunk. Of course there was grieving, but the cause of the grieving was made into a fairytale. The reason he kept his illness quiet was he had rectal cancer and he's from the generation that didn't like to admit they had a rectum.

Then a year after she died, it was acknowledged by several columnists (Walter Winchell, Louella Parsons) that the "Good Night My Dearest Darling note" and gardenia in her hand in her casket came from Donald Friede, not Powell. Which makes sense. Powell was too much of a mess for that sort of gesture.

I just think Powell gets a bad rap. He didn't want to get married again at that time. Why should the guy sign on to be her husband when they cared and were friends but weren't "in love", didn't have passion, and he would basically sign on to be a troubled-woman's live-in daddy/caretaker?

Of course he was a wreck at Harlow's funeral - he was an emotional, often depressed guy who got blue about a lot of things.

He was smart, professional, talented, funny, but also suffered from on and off depression or at least black moods, and insecurities. He did Harlow a lot of good as far as being a source of advise and support. But just because SHE decided she wanted so badly to marry him, he's the bad guy because he didn't want to? He sounds like the only smart one. This was a twenty five-six year old who had married Paul Bern, a very weird marriage no matter what the true story was, and his secretary says Harlow pressured/pursued HIM (Bern) into marriage and he wasn't happy at the reception. He was dead after four months of marriage. Then she impulse-marries a cameraman just to apparently squash a potential scandal about her affair with the married Max Bauer and moves back with mommy after two months. Way back when she was a teen she'd married a hometown heir and lived the high life in Beverly Hills before that broke up and she got with a mobster and Howard Hughes, and who knows who else, then Paul Bern.

So she has this very public relationship with William Powell, is becoming extremely alcohol dependent, he doesn't want to marry her and HE's the bad guy? He'd have been insane to marry her. He had his own problems. He'd had an on and off marriage to his first wife for fifteen years, nobody ever knew when they were together or apart. He had the care of a young son a good deal of the time. He has a whirlwind marriage to Carole Lombard where she says "The son of a bitch is always acting even when he takes off his pajamas", where she ran around on him and they split. He was ten years older than most Hollywood leading men (in his forties), he supported his own parents, had his acting career to deal with, suffered from "black Irish" dark, depressive moods. And this was all before his bout with cancer. Just the fact that he was in this strange arrangement with Harlow is evidence enough he wasn't husband material at that time.

Last, Powell is on record as admiring Myrna Loy's poise and equilibrium. When he came back after cancer he made only four movies in two years, all of them only with her. To me, that also shows a somewhat dependant/fragile personality who wasn't equipped to "save" someone else beyond the practical ways he helped Harlow. But psychologically? Not for him, and he knew it.

@106, I don't believe all she wanted was a husband and family. She had two abortions, maybe more. Her first abortion, she was in love with her husband (Charles McGrew), as young and healthy as she'd ever be, and the only reason not to have the baby was she was breaking into movies. She was just an extra back then and still had the abortion. She had her second abortion in 1936. If you want a husband and kids, you don't date mobsters, married boxers, studio fixers, and marriage-shy guys old enough to be your daddy. I don't think she knew what she wanted.

Here's something about Jean Harlow: she was quite beloved by the people she worked with and most everyone who knew her liked her or loved her. She really was a very good, likeable person. Her major flaw was her passivity; she could never extricate herself from her awful, domineering mother. And she drank as a form of escape from her mother and the pressure of being a movie star, the premiere sex symbol of that era.

Some of that's mythmaking though, [113]. For example, supposedly Spencer Tracy wrote in his diary - "Jean Harlow died today. Grand girl." Who read his diary? I've never read anything else about his diary.

We don't know why she drank. Look at what she did, not what was said or what she said. She and her mom spent time in LA when she was young when her mother made a failed attempt to become an actress. They went back to Kansas. When she was sixteen, she married a 23 year old rich guy and where do they elope to get away from mommy? Beverly Hills, California. From Kansas, where mommy still lives.

Big coincidence, right? No interest in being a film actress, not her. Supposedly she and he didn't do anything but socialize and drink and then she got extra work - forced upon her, of course, somehow, even though mom was still back in Kansas and her husband had money.

Harlow also posed nude in Griffith Park. The photographs are beautiful and natural, but mom didn't make her do them. Mom does show up in L.A., Jean gets pregnant. She can have the baby with her rich husband, or she can have an abortion and keep doing bit parts. She had the abortion. Sorry, no mom can FORCE their kid into an abortion. Stars back then had abortions if they wanted their career to stay on track, or weren't married. Jean was married, not a star, no real career, didn't want a career, but had an abortion? Really. I'm supposed to believe she didn't want a career, mom whipped her out of bed every morning?

Jean managed to marry and elope without her mother, so her mother couldn't possibly have had total control. The abortion was Jean's choice too. Just sometimes it seems to me people, including biographers, fall over backwards not to look at the obvious. Moving to Beverly Hills, the abortion, dating Hughes, dating a mobster. She dated power people, not people her age, once her first marriage was over, to get her career going. All the while just wanting to be a housewife? Come on.

There's too much of a gap between what Jean Harlow said she wanted and what she actually did, who she married and dated, and the choices she made between her career and personal life. It was very popular back then for all actresses to say they wanted home and hearth. Every time there's a point in Harlow's history that doesn't look good, the mother gets the blame. Not saying mother was good news, but nobody was stopping Jean from visiting her father, nobody was stopping Jean from a lot of stuff. When she wanted to do something she did it. When she needed to sell the house her mother loved, she sold it. This passive stuff is just a way to remove all responsibility for herself.

She'd been married to McGrew, had a romance with Howard Hughes, and dated a mobster - and that's just what's on the public record. Yet people still pretend she married Paul Bern out of naivete and didn't learn the deal til the wedding night. Sure.

When she got sick on the set of Saratoga, her mother was on vacation in Catalina. The horrible mother who was such bad news. This must be why William Powell called her mother back home to care for Jean. He was working - and they weren't really "together" anymore - even though Jean could afford a nurse and had staff.

Not saying mom was healthy, but her boyfriends were no worse than Jean's choices in men. I don't believe Jean was totally passive, actively wanting nothing more than marriage and a child, but was too weak to say no to mommy. That sounds like plain fantasy with no oomph or intention behind it to me, based on her choices. She had a rich grandfather in Kansas who'd have loved to have her back home.

This doesn't make her a bad person. But she made all the classic choices of a narcissist who sees in men roles she wants them to play in her life, and doesn't see them apart from what she needs from them. She was married and divorced three times by age twenty-two, and somehow the guy who resisted being Husband No. 4 is the bad guy. She had talent all right.

Compare Jean Harlow with Clara Bow. David Stenn says Clara Bow got bad publicity because she made no bones about wanting to be a star, having many boyfriends, and loving life exactly as she had it. She didn't tell the gossip columnists what actresses were supposed to say: More than anything I want a real domestic life with a husband and kids. Clara Bow was rejected by Hollywood "society" but had a reputation as very democratic, treating crew the same as producers and stars.

Clara Bow also suffered mental illness, probably inherited from mentally/psychologically disturbed parents. However, contrary to myth, she made the transition to talkies. She was briefly out of favor with the studios, but came back strong enough to have studios bidding for her services after the silent era ended. Her talkie, Running Wild, was a huge hit. She had one other huge hit that was a talkie, forget the name. That led to contract offers, including interest in her playing in "Red Headed Woman" (A role Harlow ended up doing) and a movie with Mary Pickford. She declined because she was burned out with Hollywood. She'd made the last two movies for money. She had married an actual husband, not a mobster, not a married guy, not someone old enough to be her dad. He was a peer Rex Bell - an actor her age and they both retired (on her money) to a ranch away from L.A. He then built successful businesses and became a politician. They had kids. The fact that her existing mental illness eventually won (her kids tell these stories) isn't, it seems, the fault of her husband or her choices.

Moral of the story: This was an actress who admitted she wanted to be an actress and a star. When she got sick of Hollywood, she didn't tell everyone how much she wanted to be a housewife while continuing to date the wrong people, trying to get someone blatantly unwilling and totally wrong to marry her, while lining up picture after picture. Bow had a terrible, controlling parent too. But when she wanted out, she meant it, and got out, and when she wanted a husband and children, she made the choice of someone who wanted a wife and children, and was appropriate for her. Whenever I read or watch a bio on Harlow, and some iffy part of her story shows up, the blame gets shifted to her mother. That's a cop out.

Jean Harlow's heavy drinking wasn't unusual for the era. Most of those old movie stars drank like fish.

[R114] What do you mean, who read his diary? Katharine Hepburn did on a documentary. It was more of a day book. Tracy's daughter Susan gave it to her, and she read different excerpts, and the camera showed them. It was a documentary about Tracy so I don't think anyone was trying to do anything for Harlow's reputation.

R115, interesting theory. I would love to see a biopic about Clara Bow, but I doubt it would happen.

She was funny, no denying, but she's been dead for nearly eighty years... we should talk about her every other day?

Well, R84, probably not exactly so. In her great autobiography Nostalgia is Not What It Used to Be, Simone Signoret has a rather large chapter devoted to her friendship with Marilyn Monroe (prior to MM’s affair with SS’s husband, Yves Montand, which occurred on the set of Let’s Make Love after SS went back to France and Arthur Miller to NY). And she tells about MM flying Harlow’s personal colorist, who by then was retired, especially to LA to color her hair as a tribute to her childhood idol. They would have a private coloring party, enjoying the woman’s stories of old Hollywood as (and I paraphrasing from my memory) “Marilyn hair got its world famous platinum color while mine turned into a darker shade of blond, becoming the serious actress I was”.

Harlow was reportedly friends with Bette Davis.

r115: The other hit Clara Bow talkie was CALL HER SAVAGE. She has a onscreen raw vitality unlike any other actress of the 1930s.

Some people (including the OP) have stated that Harlow was a bigger star than Crawford, but according to Quigly's that isn't the case. Each year, since 1932, Quigley's Publishing Company releases a list of the top ten box office champs. Crawford made the list the first 5 years: 1932 at #3, 1933 at #9, 1934 at #6, 1935 at #5, 1936 at #7. Harlow only made the list one time, in 1933 at #6.

Harlow's most reputable biographer, David Stenn, pretty much flat out says she'd become an alcoholic (versus a heavy partier common in Hollywood). Sad drinking. She's such a mess and a lot of it is put on her mother, but I can't help thinking, geez, chronic untreated kidney disease for years. Wouldn't that impact your dependance on your mom? She leaches off your money and in return takes care of you physically? There's the saddest picture on the web of her being carried by Marino Bello, her mother's husband. Kidney disease created a lot of issues before it finally killed her, and without that burden maybe the mother wouldn't have had the influence, and maybe her choices in romantic partners wouldn't have been parental. She still did go for powerful people though.

Recently did watch Clara Bow, and actually it WAS Call Her Savage and not Running Wild. Transposed the titles. ITA - she was the single most vivid, vital presence from that era and IMO the one that followed. Wipes everyone else off the screen for raw vitality. I saw a Clara Bow bio on youtube. Some silent footage, and then a truly embarrassing effort in a talkie. I knew nothing about her so was very surprised when she put that embarrassment behind her and turned out to have made a fantastic transition to sound. I always thought sound had ended her career, but she ended her own career.

Re

I think the new toned down Harlow would have struggled staying successful. Was Personal Property a success? That was her film with Robert Taylor, where she was the main star. Her other final films put her in the company of other big stars. I don't think she did the toned down thing very well. She was very uneven, she tried to put on a bit of a "proper" voice but her Bronx-sounding vowels would intrude, and she didn't have the personality to make those characters interesting.

I've always wondered how Harlow got that Bronx/Jersey/whatever accent coming from Kansas City. It was her real accent, not put on.

"Some people (including the OP) have stated that Harlow was a bigger star than Crawford, but according to Quigly's that isn't the case."

Well, she was certainly the flashiest star of her time, what with that platinum hair and that tough, sexual movie persona. I think she probably was more popular than Crawford as a whole. Crawford was certainly jealous of her. This is from David Stenn's bio of Harlow:

Crawford hated Harlow. "Joan was quite jealous", reveals journalist Dorothy Manners, who had known Crawford since her arrival in Hollywood eights years earlier. "She'd been the sexpot of the MGM lot for years and then they brought in the Baby." Decades later, Crawford would call Harlow "one of Metro's real biggies, but a tragic person you can't imagine," but at the time she had no sympathy whatsoever. Crawford's then husband, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., termed her attitude towards Harlow a "controlled detestation."

I think Crawford disliked all of her female contemporaries, with the exception of Greta Garbo.

[quote]And she had the worst first name ever in real life: she was born Harlean Carpenter.

Harlean was a portmanteau of her mother's name, Jean Harlow, which Harlean adopted as her stage name.

Harlow movies were declining in popularity. Her "toned down" self wasn't making money except for Libeled Lady where the romantic centerpiece was Powell and Loy and Powell really carried the picture (btw, the more I see Spencer Tracy the more overrated I think he was) Out of Reckless, Wife v. Secretary (where she played a totally virtuous secretary who even gets to give a "wise" talk to Loy) and Suzy (with Cary Grant, only Suzy made money). There were far too many actresses around who could do a "lady" type lead in a comedy or drama much much better than Harlow. There was always something "off" when she played drama or someone supposedly from society. Her accent and not really "getting" the type.

Saratoga made a bundle, and when MGM did an audience survey pretty much everyone who went said they did because they wanted to see if they could tell where Harlow was about to buy the farm.

Her body/figure was gone in her last three movies. Obviously if she didn't have kidney disease she'd have kept her figure and maybe spent a few more sexpot years, but the acting needed work once she stopped playing Dinner at Eight sorts of women.

Here's a picture of Jean with a more natural hair color.

Yeah, without the platinum and the body, she's not long for show business.

Even the roles that made her a star would have been greater, hotter and bigger with Clara Bow, with the exception of "Bombshell", Harlow's only perfect fit. Harlow had a really accessible sort of appeal that made people think she could live next door or show up in a bar, but in Red Headed Woman, she wasn't much to look at. She just fatal attractioned her way in. With Bow, the movie would have been more exciting/unpredictable.

If Harlow had lived, she would never have been Ginger Rogers. Ginger Rogers was an actual performer. Jean Harlow was an extra-turned star with a one-note persona (like many MGM stars) that was effective only with tailored material, and even then there were misfires. Rogers was a real performer. She toured Vaudeville as a teen-ager. She was in two B'way shows as a teen, headlining one ("Girl Crazy", where she introduced Gershwin's "Embraceable You"). She did Paramount shorts where solo songs had to segue smoothly into and out of dialogue, such as "Office Blues." IOW, although she didn't have formal technique, Rogers had extensive stage experience, and Harlow became capable of delivering one very specific film-focused persona. Her movies that tried to expand that persona lost money.

I always thought the relationship with William Powell was manufactured in MGM's publicity department. When you read about it in stuff written back then, the whole thing reads like a 3 year publicity stunt with no there, there. It only became this sob story myth when she died.

Howard Strickling and his minions were all over it. Harlow was mobbed up, and when the insta-relationship with Jean Harlow began in 1934, Powell had just signed with MGM, was nearly ten years older than other MGM leading men, dyed his hair, and all the public knew of his personal life was Carole Lombard, sixteen years younger, had dumped him (I love the guy, this isn't a knock). Harlow validated his leading man masculinity and glamor, and his gentleman actor image helped cool her down after three years of seamy personal life scandal. In later life, Jimmy Stewart said he had a fling with her, but didn't have an extended affair because of the mob. This was right in the middle of her supposed Big Love with Powell.

Recently I saw three pictures, taken at different times, of Harlow with Marlene Dietrich. One is a group shot and Harlow is turned towards her, has her arm through Dietrich's arm and her hand in her lap. The other two look cozy too. I also saw the movie "Reckless" with Powell, and in a scene at the racetrack, Harlow greets Rosalind Russell with a kiss on the lips. It's not scripted.

I wonder if she bent that way and that was some of her problems. She couldn't face it.

China Seas was on TCM this week.

I loved Harlow in "Red Dust" and "Dinner at Eight." She was perfect in those movies.

Reckless was filmed before China Seas and she's horrible in Reckless, both acting and the pretend-singing/dancing. Then comes China Seas and she's adorable, a totally different person and actress.

There's the story, repeated in David Stenn's thought-reputable biography, that Mother Jean set William Powell up by telling the media Powell had purchased a $25k (or 30k - accounts vary) private crypt room for three for Jean Harlow, and Powell was stuck (Mother Jean certainly didn't have that money) because he'd get bad publicity if he refused. This 25-30K has been discussed by Stenn and is taken for real. But I recently researched what 25K would be in today's dollars, and it's over 400K. 30K is over 500k in today's money. You can build your own multi-person mausoleum, and the property for it, today for about 400K. I also looked at Forest Lawn's prices TODAY. While I'm sure Jean Harlow's already existing "private crypt room" where she's interred at Forest Lawn was costly by the standards of the day, I don't think there's any possible way it was 25K in 1937. These reputable bios check some things out and others they just don't.

I would have loved to have seen Jean Harlow playing Crystal in "The Women." If she'd remained healthy and lived that role would have been perfect for her.

I just Google-ed images of Jean Harlow. I'm sorry but she was not a pretty woman.

She may have been a very nice, friendly, gracious person and she may have been considered sexy and daring for her time - but, wow, was she homely.

I think, in all fairness, her health problems and kidney problems caused her to look older than her age.

Hollywood Haunted Houses

"Jean Harlow's Westwood Home"

R139 I think a lot of things pulled it together for her to be photogenic. Supposedly, she had great skin. The hair matched the skin. George Hurrell did these iconic photos of her with all the unfortunate parts either in deep shadow or blown out with super nova lighting.

Her face was symmetrical - not classical, but evenly distributed I guess that means (read this somewhere). She had deep set eyes, an unfortunate nose, and a very small, but defined, cleft chin. It's actually the nose that saves her. If you see her in profile and take that nose down to a smaller size, her whole lower face recedes and she starts looking like she's got a turtle-face profile. She had a nice body, although IMO not nearly as fabulous as advertised. Look even in the background of any movie with chorus girls or young female background players and there are many better bodies. It's just how she was packaged, and that the personality she used on film went with the voice and the face.

I don't think she would have lasted because in regular All American leading lady roles, and she played a few, she disappeared.

That face would never have held up for a career once she was over 30. Her career was all about being baby faced, the same white color all over, having nice boobs and legs, and that whiny voice. When they toned her down to give her regular leading lady roles (mostly roles not opposite Gable) she couldn't act and her films lost money. Those deep set eyes, teensy lower face and non-classic nose gave her a cupid look as a young thing, but she would have looked like a potato face after that. She wasn't talented enough to morph into a character actress.

She WAS pretty. But it was hard to tell under the tons of makeup she had to wear. And the platinum hair was harsh. But she was a pretty woman, of course she was. But she wasn't one of those people who look good in just about every photograph (Marilyn Monroe was like that). In some pictures she looks downright plain. But Jean Harlow WAS a beautiful, incredibly sexy woman. THE sex symbol of the thirties, one of the greatest stars of all time.

The pencilled brows were meant to tone down her heavy, mannish forehead and deep-set eyes. She was not a classic beauty, but she was somewhat pretty.

Crazy r144, because I would say "the pencilled eyebrows" EMPHASIZED her heavy mannish forehead and deep-set eyes.

Just re-read this entire great thread, even seeing some of the smart posts I wrote early on.

Harlow's unique image and presence were larger than life and her stylized looks were perfect for the silvery black and white Art Deco sets that framed her. There had been no one like her, she was the first of a kind.

But that kind of thing dated quickly and badly and she would have been way out of step with the down-to-earth female stars of the late 1930s like Bette Davis, Irene Dunne, Myrna Loy and Jean Arthur.

Other extreme types like Katharine Hepburn, Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich were infamously labeled "box office poison" in 1938 and I suspect Harlow, had she lived, would have been on that same list. Tastes had changed by the end of the decade.

A mess from beginning to end...............

"Saratoga" is fun to watch, if only to pick out the scenes that were filmed with a double after Harlow's death. The scene in the parlor with Walter Pidgeon was the last scene she ever filmed. Harlow was forced to wear wigs years before she died due to hair loss from bleaching.

"Why were Harlow's eyebrows plucked to such an extreme? I don't remember other stars of the period having such barely-there eyebrows. "

They weren't plucked. They were shaved off. It was the fashion back then. Clara Bow had shaved eyebrows. So did Marlene Dietrich. Lana Turner had her eyebrows shaved, and supposedly they never grew back. Or maybe that was Ginger Rogers. Anyway, shaving off the eyebrows and penciling them in in whatever shape you wanted was the style. But it looked so fake and ridiculous.

Harlow never wanted to be a star. Her mother did. But Mama Jean didn't make a go of it as a movie star, so she encouraged her daughter in that direction, so she could be a star vicariously through her. Mama Jean LOVED being the mother of her movie star daughter. Jean Harlow's relationship with her mother was one of extreme co-dependence. Myrna Loy said "the grip she had on that girl was unbelievable."

Dead thread but I agree with R148 she wasn't a classic beauty but her face was actually pretty in natural light (without the god awful brows) and her personality definitely made up for the lack of beauty

"Harlean Carpenter."

I like it.

Harlow was quite pretty, but it was hard to tell under the harsh makeup she had to wear and the shaved brows didn't help. She was a natural blonde, but didn't become a "platinum blonde" until later. In photos her looks would change; in some pictures she looks pretty, in some she looks sexy, in some she doesn't even look particularly attractive. But at her peak she was THE sex symbol of her era and men were crazy about her.

Two awful movies were made about Harlow, both originally titled "Harlow." Carol Lynley played her in one, Carroll Baker played her in the other. Harlow had such a crazy, tragic life and she was one of the most legendary of screen idols; a movie about her could have been really something. But who could play her credibly? She was one of those larger than life screen personalities. I don't know if any actress could do her justice.

back when Richard Dawson hosted Family Feud the question was: name a blond bombshell and the grandmother at the end said Jean Harlow.

Richard knew who she was, but of course the name wasn't up there.

The family lost.

The ride home must have been awkward.

Harlow as a teenager. I've always thought her nose and chin spoiled her looks personally.

So Harlow's name wasn't in a list of "blonde bombshells" on Family Feud? Well, that just shows you what a crock of shit Family Feud was. That was one of Harlow's nicknames 'the blonde bombshell", along with platinum blonde. Whoever made up the list must have been pretty ignorant. The old grandma was right in thinking she would be on the list. Of course she should have been.

I remember a celebrity Family Feud where the list was of "sex symbols with one name." Norma Fell (Mr. Roper on Three's Company) guessed 'Marilyn." She was on the list. Audra Linley (Mrs. Roper on Three's Company) guessed "Garbo." She wasn't on the list. I don't remember who else was on the list, but at the end when all the names were revealed one of them was "Charo!" The celebrity panel groaned with disbelief when they saw that. It was really stupid.

Not only did she die because dialysis was years away, but also penicillin. In those days you could die from a scratch, if it got badly enough infected.

She was a true beauty especially in her candid shots there is something angelic about her

They've been showing Jean Harlow movies on TCM today. "Red Dust" is on now. Harlow and Clark Gable were at their peak sexiness in that movie. Another movie they showed was "Personal Property"; her co-star in that one was Robert Taylor. That movie was made not long before she died of kidney disease. It's evident something is not right with her. She's heavier and even makeup can't quite conceal the dark circles around her eyes.

Between the two, I always preferred Harlow over Marilyn Monroe. Harlow was a blonde sex symbol, but a completely different type from Monroe. Harlow's persona was tough and brassy, while Monroe's was vulnerable an babyish. In real life, Harlow was down to earth, unpretentious and a total professional, while Monroe was neurotic, insecure and would drive her co-workers crazy by flubbing her lines and showing up on the set hours late. I like Harlow much better than the nutty Monroe.

Just watched Red Dust, Clarke Gable looked so much better without the mustache.

Harlow was better then Marilyn Monroe, to me I think 30's film actors were better and truly set the blueprint cause they were more realistic about their characters and they knew how to act around the Hays Code when it was enforced. Most of the best film actors of the 20th Century came out of the 30's. Barbra Stanwyck, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Laurence Oliver, it goes on.

Jean's speaking voice was just as harsh as her bleached blond hair...then her stupid mother let the poor girl die! What a sin...something like Britney Murphy.

R160, Jean Harlow was one of the first major stars who were victim to if you let them dies you can be able to make more money off of them. Saratoga was her biggest movie draw.

I was watching the TCM marathon of Harlow films, but i had to switch channels during "Bombshell" because I couldn't stand her voice. She was genuinely funny, though.

Carol Lynley actually slightly resembles the real Harlow. Carroll Baker doesn't at all.

Didn't William Powell pay for her plot and continue to send flowers on her death anniversary until he died?

Someone mentioned her nickname was Baby... this was engraved into the wall of her crypt.

Only relatives are allowed to visit the crypt... you need to supply documentation proving that you are related to Harlow in order to gain access, which is sad for fans who want to pay their respects.

Red Dust was SO good. Bout time TCM showed it.

Supposedly Jean's mother announced publicly that Powell was going to pay for her expensive crypt. Of course he couldn't very well decline to pay for it since that would make him look bad, so he shelled out a bundle for a marble crypt with three spaces in it, presumably one for Jean, Mama Jean and himself. Mama Jean is there, but Powell remarried ( he was divorced from Carole Lombard) and was interred near his wife and son. The third space in the crypt remains empty. As far as I know he didn't regularly send flowers to Harlow's tomb. He wanted to put the past behind him. Joe DiMaggio did that for Marilyn Monroe; he had red roses sent to her crypt for over twenty years.

...Original Blonde Bombshell, Harlow, born right here in Kansas City... Yeah, it's what we do.... For all you blonde preferring Gentlemen... Kansas City and Missouri, have more HOT blondies running around than Sweden...

[QUOTE]Carol Lynley actually slightly resembles the real Harlow. Carroll Baker doesn't at all.

Baker was made up to resemble 1962 Marilyn. It was distracting. The film also borrowed heavily from Marilyn's bio. For instance, in the beginning, when it depicts Harlow as a struggling and starving film extra. In reality, she was from a privileged background and was married to an heir and living as a socialite in Beverly Hills. She initially did the extra work as a lark.

R152/R154 doesn't FAMILY FEUD survey 100 random people? It's not like the producers pick the answers. I guess Harlow was unknown to modern audiences by the '70s/'80s.

This has been fascinating to read. William Powell is one of my favorite actors.

[quote]There is an account of the night before Bern committed suicide. Apparently Bern and Harlow drank, Bern exited the bedroom and put on a large dildo. Harlow found it amusing and they both laughed and carried on until Bern began to cry. He was found dead the next day.

In a wildly dramatic gesture, Bern supposedly doused himself with her favorite perfume, Mitsouko, before he killed himself.